Spokane approves $3.8 million for housing center before finalizing location

(The Center Square) - The City of Spokane approved a $3.85 million contract on Monday for its proposed Housing Navigation Center; however, it still needs to finalize a location to put the service.

Spokane issued a Request for Proposals a few months ago with an intended start date of Aug. 1. While it missed the mark in terms of starting, with a contract now approved, the city is one step closer to propping up the center and Mayor Lisa Brown’s scattered site shelter model.

Arielle Anderson, director of the Community, Housing, and Human Services Department, told the city council on Monday that the Housing Navigation Center would lead the new model.

Ideally, the center will have around 30 beds, where individuals can temporarily stay while being routed to other scattered site shelters and services. The council awarded the one-year contract to Empire Health Foundation and Revive Counseling Spokane as the operator/primary providers.

“We did just get one response [to the RFP],” Anderson admitted, “but EHF and Revive have a longstanding relationship; they know one another, and so I think being able to effectively get this up and running very quickly is not going to take a lot of time.”

The two organizations will use the $3.85 million allocated from the Legislature to prop up the center and the new model with subcontractors, all in an effort to decommission the Trent Shelter by this fall. However, Spokane has already pushed that tentative deadline a few times.

Last week, the city issued a release stating it intends to close the Trent Shelter by sometime in September or October as it props up the navigation center. Anderson reaffirmed that during Monday’s meeting, but the deadline also relies on having a place to prop up the center.

Communication Director Erin Hut told The Center Square that Spokane’s Cannon Street Shelter would likely serve as the location for the navigation center, but nothing has been finalized yet.

EHF and Revive both operate the current Cannon Street location, so tying it down as the official site would only require the city to either extend its current lease or create a new one. Hut added that the city is also in contract negotiations over the scattered shelters, but “we’re close,” she said.

Anderson noted that the city and providers could utilize churches and existing warming/cooling centers and shelters for the scattered sites. She said the plan is to start with five to eight shelters, each with a capacity of 25 to 30 beds and operating on a mix of 12 to 24 hour cycles.

However, anyone staying at the scattered sites would have to be referred from the navigation center, and with eight shelters at 30 beds each, that’s only around 240 beds. At the same time, the most recent Point-in-Time Count noted over 2,000 homeless individuals across the county.

“Hopefully, there’s more than just eight scattered sites throughout the City of Spokane, which I think the city is large enough to accommodate,” Anderson said. “These types of facilities already exist within neighborhoods; they’re baked into our neighborhoods already.”